November 2016
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The Official Newsletter of the Ann Arbor Magic Club / S.A.M 88 / I.B.M. 210 Nov. 2016 President’s Corner How did you get started in magic? Was it a kit you received as a gift? A book you stumbled upon in your local library? A magician you saw at school, or at a public show someplace? How old were you when you first became interested in magic? Young? Old? Middle-aged? It seems that many magicians become interested in this amazing art form when they are young. Very young. Personally, I was in 2nd grade when I was bitten by the magic bug. A magic kit for Christmas. Weekly viewing of Mark Wilson in the “Magic Land of Alakazam”. A magician appearing at my elementary school. All these things combined to push me along to where I ultimately wound up today. One of the biggest challenges of any fraternal organization these days (and the Ann Arbor Magic Club is no exception), is finding new, young members. With all the exposure our club gets from our public performances and our member performances (I try to always include the club name in my introductions), the average age of our members is probably north of 50! So how can we rise to the challenge, and interest the next generation to pick up the torch and hold it high in the years to come? One of my goals for the coming year is to reach out to an unbelievably large group of youngsters that certainly has an interest in magic and is virtually in the back yard of our current meeting spot: Livonia. One of our newest members, Rob Krozal, works with the two large Boy Scout groups in Livonia. He is willing to help make the necessary introductions that could gain us a foot in the door. So, how do we approach this? I’m open to ideas. Do we offer a show? Do we hold classes? If so, how often? And how do we convert interest in magic, to membership in a magic club? We will need to have some commitment on behalf of our members to help with this incredible opportunity that has presented itself. Let’s brainstorm on this and see what we come up with. Keep in mind: you may be the one who helps execute your idea! November Meeting: The voting will be all over by our next meeting, Wednesday, November 9th (thank goodness, eh?). Hopefully, the counting will all be over by then as well (remember election 2000?). So, let’s have some fun with some magic! I don’t have a theme per se: it’s “just magic”. Let’s hang out together, share some magic, and just amaze one another! Christmas Party: My wife Ronda and I would like to invite all our members and a guest to our home in Grosse Ile on Sunday December 4th in the afternoon for a Christmas party and general get together. We’ll have food and magical fellowship and we hope you’ll join us, even though it’s a bit of a drive for many. Address is 8159 Colony Drive, Apt 23 (we live in a condo), Grosse Ile (48138). There’s a big parking lot by the pool, and signs will direct your parking, and the short walk to our condo. We’re on the 2nd floor, so there are stairs to navigate, though they are very wide and every 4 or 5 there are rest spots. I’ll confirm times as we get closer, and send it out in an e-mail. Well, that’s it for this month. Happy Thanksgiving! I’m thankful for all your participation and support of the goals and activities of our club. See you soon! Magically yours, John Russell, President Secretary’s Report Reviews of the Anthony Grupido Lecture indicate that it was very well received, with Anthony revealing the “real work” in performing street magic to include the legal considerations attendant in that type of performance venue. Another highlight of the evening was the recognition of Gene Fogel, noted radio broadcaster and Hall of Fame journalist, with an honorary membership in the Ann Arbor Magic Club. Gene has a long history avidly promoting the club and magic in general throughout southeastern Michigan. Anthony Grupido Lecture At an Optometrist's Office: "If you don't see what you're looking for, You've come to the right place.”; On a Plumber's truck: "We repair what your husband fixed.”; On an Electrician's truck: "Let us remove your shorts.”; Outside a Muffler Shop: "No appointment necessary. We hear you coming.”; Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel. ~John Quinton~ A priest, a rabbi and a gorilla walk into a bar. The bartender looks over and says "Is this some kind of joke?" Sign on the back of a Septic Tank Truck: "Caution - This Truck is full of Political Promises” Guardians For Animals Pet Expo 2016 In a Chicago Radiator Shop: "Best place in town to take a leak.” Did you hear the one about the dyslexic agnostic insomniac who stayed up all night wondering if there really was a dog? In the front yard of a Funeral Home: "Drive carefully. We'll wait.”; Thanks to Jim Molnar, Dan Jones, Bob Goodwin and Pam & Randy Smith for their contributions entertaining Expo attendees with balloon sculpting and magic performances! Answer at the end of the Messenger Around the Town: For complete listing of magic events in Michigan, visit John Luka’s site http://www.johnlukamagic.com/mi/events.html Jim Folkl Ex Libris by Joaquin Ayala, PhD. Hello folks and welcome to the Ex Libris article for November, 2016! This year is coming to a close and the holiday season is upon us. It is a time of year when we are reminded to be thankful for what we have (which should be all year, really) and to share with others what we do have. The book we are focusing on for this month will challenge you in various ways and teach you to look at things from more than one perspective. The book is called The Magic Mirror by Dr. Robert E. Neale, co-authored by David Parr. The name Bob Neale may be familiar to many of you as he was born in Mount Clemens, Michigan on June 23rd, 1929. He is a magician, mentalist, origami expert, puzzler and master topologist. He holds degrees from Amherst College as well as a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary in New York. He was also a Professor of Psychiatry and Religion for 24 years. His interest is broad and includes the occult, fortunetelling, hypnosis, eyeless vision and even the practice of self-hypnosis. The Magic Mirror is another one of those books that is very deep and very complex, but by no means are its context out of reach for anyone willing to put the time into reading it and absorbing the material. This book is mainly theoretical but it also focuses on things that lend themselves to the world of storytelling. It takes a look at the various types of magic in other contexts, including theatrical, social and historical. He uses these to further distill their origin from psychological roots and teach the reader how to classify their magic into different categories – emotional, thrilling, playful, and serious, etc. It also teaches you how to understand what each effect is about and how it can be used to help construct a better, more powerful presentation. When this book was originally written, the content was so very intense and complex that most people would have had a hard time understanding it; it was better suited to academics (much like his earlier work, An Essay on Magic) than it was to laypersons. Enter, David Parr. David had to basically re-write the book in a way that non-academics could understand. Thanks to his efforts, we have this final tome (though I would love to see the original myself). The effects in the book are not necessarily “magical” in the ordinary sense of the term, the one in which we magicians would think of it. There are a few, but many of them are topological pieces that can play just like a magic effect, and their very nature allow for various ways to present them. Take for example what is probably my very favorite effect in the book, The Last Dream. It is a storytelling effect using tombstone-shaped cards that takes your audience on a weird, strange and nightmarish journey through mortality. The story can be played with both serious and comical overtones, all at the same time, or it can be scary. Another fantastic piece is the Baffling Borromean Rings. If you are not familiar with the term, look them up sometime – Borromean rings are three (or more) rings that are permanently interlocked together but no one ring is linked to any other…using a set of these rings that you make yourself, you proceed to change the arrangement of the rings under increasingly impossible conditions. This is a most excellent way to illustrate the point that what we see is not always the truth, but neither is what we think. The impossible can be done. There is a great piece called Walking Through a Wall where a card cut into two sections forms a solid wall, but when the two pieces are turned over and put back together, a whole appears in the middle.